Carleton College’s Statement on Diversity

Carleton College aspires to provide a liberal arts education that equips students with the skills to lead a fully realized life in a diverse and changing world. A Carleton education recognizes that the world’s people differ in their race and ethnicity, culture, political and social worldviews, religious and spiritual understandings, language and geographic characteristics, gender, gender identities and sexual orientations, learning and physical abilities, age, and social and economic classes.

It is essential to our high academic standards that we be committed to creating a diverse campus community because:

Carleton has a responsibility to educate talented and diverse students, and we have a strong commitment to underrepresented groups.

Carleton students must meaningfully encounter difference in order to grow personally and live fruitfully in society and contribute to its work.

The core principles of a liberal arts education are based on mutual respect, communication, and engagement, which commits us to create and affirm a culture of respect for people in all aspects of their lives. Carleton seeks to provide a welcoming and safe living and learning space, while we also recognize that the pursuit of a liberal arts education can involve discomfort and disagreement. Carleton affirms that the college and its community grow in understanding when established views are challenged.

A community that fosters diversity of thought and an open exchange of ideas can only emerge from the participation of individuals with different backgrounds and worldviews. Because creative and talented people come from many places and have many backgrounds, Carleton College is dedicated to attracting and retaining a diverse faculty, staff, student body, and Board of Trustees and sees this as among our highest priorities. Carleton’s commitment to diversity will sustain and enrich the learning and living environment that defines the institution and its place in the world.

Approved by theDiversity Initiative Group (unanimously), October 17, 2006.
Approved by the Faculty (unanimously), November 6, 2006
Approved by the College Council (unanimously) January 15, 2007
Approved by the Board of Trustees (unanimously) May 19, 2007